Summary of articles in Billed Bladet #05, 2017.
Written by Trine Larsen.
At the gala dinner, which took place at Amalienborg (*), there were 90 guests.
Mary had the Icelandic ambassador to her right. Frederik had the Icelandic First Lady, Eliza Jean Reid, to his right, while the Icelandic President was flanked by the Regent Couple.
It's tradition that the first state visit made by a new Icelandic president goes to Denmark. - It strengthen important relations and it's a good trial-run in friendly surroundings.
As is customary the heads of states exchanged speeches.
QMII referred to Donald Duck (**) as the most important Danish-teacher in Iceland for decades after the Icelandic independence in 1944 in her speech: "It was so that they could be able to read the Donald Duck Magazine that children in Iceland for decades thought it was fun to learn Danish.
Danish is still taught in Icelandic schools - now as the second foreign language (after English presumably). The Danish (language) is important because it's the key to a Nordic language-understanding (***) and as such to further education in the Nordic countries. (****) To know and understand more than one Nordic language, I think is very important for all of us in the North. It ought to be a matter of course in all our countries - where else in the world do you find otherwise closely related peoples and nations who can communicate in their own tongue without having to resort to a foreign language/franca lingua"?
All the members of the DRF present wore the Icelandic Grand Cross.
At the return dinner, which took place in the Black Diamond (main library) in Copenhagen, the actress Sofie Gråbøl was invited. Some of you may know her from various TV-series, but in Iceland she has a huge following!
PH had a very merry time! He was placed between the Icelandic First Lady and the wife to the Icelandic Foreign Minister, Agusta Johnson. - So the mood was great at that end of the table! He was in particular fascinated by the table decorations, which among other things consisted of lava-stones from Iceland. That Icelandic schnapps was served may also have helped a bit...
It was here M&F and J&M were seen cracking up at the Icelandic President who appears to have a talent for stand-up.
But for the rest of the visit it was M&F who were the hosts, and who accompanied the Icelandic First Couple to most events. That included a cup of coffee at the UN-offices in Copenhagen. And to a kindergarten named Tante Olga = Aunt Olga, where the Icelandic First Lady was presented to the Read-Play concept, which helps pre-schoolers to learn to read basic things through play. One of the books shown is also one M&F use at home, presumably with the twins.
But the Icelanders were also presented to Nordic cuisine, including oysters. And here Frederik showed that he is the son of a Frenchman. He opened oysters more expertly than the chef.
(*) As such the atmosphere is more intimate, because the Great Hall at Amalienborg is small.
Small gala dinners = Amalienborg.
Medium sized to larger dinners = Fredensborg.
Very large dinners = Christiansborg.
(**) Donald Duck is the most well-known and popular of the Disney characters in DK. As such the weekly Disney magazine, that has been published in DK since 1947 or so, is called Anders And = Donald Duck.
The European versions of Donald Duck are written and edited in Copenhagen.
The Donald Duck magazine became an instant hit, when first published. Also in Iceland, but the Icelandic market is too small to (at the time) to translate and print the magazine in Icelandic - and it was also desirable that children were encouraged to learn Danish.
(***) It has been claimed that if you can learn Danish, Norwegian and Swedish is a piece of cake. I don't know if that's true.
(****) With a population of 380.000 Icelanders there is a limit to how much education you can get in Iceland, so many if not most Icelanders study abroad. Mainly in the Nordic countries.
You can find the articles here:
BB05, 2017
A couple of remarks:
The funeral of Iuel-Brockdorff is basically a list of the closer friends of the DRF.
Mary and Marie are being compared and I'll return to that later in another thread.
Mary is in blue 
